Week 21  1st Transfer!

 So this week was crazy, but then again as a missionary when is it not.  Week started out with a meeting with an investigator (who we decided to drop after that meeting), I will call her XH. XH is the one with the crazy son who doesn't seem to know how to dress himself. We went over and she had invited a friend that we met the other day that knows our referrals! Super small world. We talked to her about what missionaries do and all the rules. Her friend, I will call her I, keeps wanting me to marry her son...so that is awkward. Tuesday we saw X. We re-gave the Plan of Salvation lesson which I think by doing it in a more visual manner, helped. She gave us homemade raspberry jam and homemade Georgian sauce (forgot the name of it) that her cousins made. SO GOOD! That night we went to Dunkin Donuts and watched Ephriam's Rescue to end the night. Tried my first Dunkin Donuts, not bad. Definitely tasted like America. Wednesday we went knocking and to be honest that day...I was not feeling it. But we picked a korpus and started knocking. The first ten floors we had no luck whatsoever, which didn't help. But, we finally started to see success. We got into more doors and met some pretty cool people. One actually knew barely any Georgian and spoke straight Russian to us, and both me and Sister Van Brocklin had no idea what to say. Luckily, one of the sisters here is Russian so we called her up and she had a conversation with the lady over the phone. All in all super fun, just had to get into it to see the joy behind it again. Thursday we saw X and we finally gave the commandment lesson and we think it went well. Although she didn't come to church on Sunday. We are seeing her today so hopefully we can get everything figured out. Friday we saw one of the people that we met knocking. We dropped her in the end but she was hecka cool. She said she was just to old to change faiths and that if she learned earlier maybe she would have. Saturday we had Women's Conference which was soooo fun. We talked about motivation and took the motivation color test. I am blue(love) and white(peace) almost evenly. We had scripture study group. I had planned the lesson and taught with Sister Seely because Sister Van Brocklin did not feel good that day. She has been sick all week, but she just pushed herself too hard and finally crashed. Sunday was crazy. One of our people, I will call her O, came and it was so great! We had a linger longer and some meetings before going to an FHE at an American Embassy house. It was so great and we had brownies which were amazing! We got transfer calls that night! I am staying in Saburtalo and I am going to be with Sister Arutunova. She is actually Russian so hopefully she teaches me some stuff. I'm really excited about the week! Sad that an trainee era is ending, but super excited for a change.

Dinner at the American Embassy

Staircase to Rachel's apartment. 12 flights up, 12 flights down. 

Spiritual thought; this is really short but I read this talk called motivation by Sterling W. Sill and it is amazing. He talks about how naturally humans are inert, but Heavenly Father wants us to be the opposite. We wants us to succeed. He explain 6 factors that can help to motivate us. Super cool talk, I highly recommend. It made the think of better ways that I can motivate myself at times when I would rather be on the couch doing nothing.

Well that is the week! Til next time!

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Week 20  The Big News!!

So this week was crazy, but y’all already know that. The news came out that we can TALK TO OUR FAMILIES! Super crazy no one expected that, but we are all so excited about the change! I will tell about how we learned about that later in the email.

The week started out with all the Georgian missionaries going to Lisi Lake for a small hike and to roast hot dogs and marshmallows. Super fun! Then after that we went to go "pop our referrals". We haven’t had the opportunity to see them since they have been in the village and sick. So we finally met with them and we left a printed copy of The Book of Mormon for them to read. They seemed really excited about it and have actually learned a lot through their relatives who are members since our first meeting. From Tuesday on, Sister Van Brocklin was sick so we didn’t do a lot of things this week besides on the weekend. Wednesday was interesting because I had to be in charge of the phone because Sister Van Brocklin didn’t really have a voice. During English night our phone rang and I had to answer alone. Usually I would have Sister Van Brocklin with me for small translation but they were teaching in another room, so I answered it and tried to do my best in Georgrain. I made it through and basically just listened for all the words I knew and prayed that the phone call would go well. So that was an experience. Valentine's day was sooooo fun. So we did a whiteboard activity that morning, so that was fun. We asked people as the walked by how they showed love for others. Later we met with "X" which was so fun. We celebrated valentine's day since she had lived in America and knows about holiday. We bought a bunch of McDonald's fries, because its her favorite, and made some letters for her and brought them over. We also finally showed all our family pictures to her and she showed us her’s. After that we then celebrated Valentine's ourselves by going back to McDonald's since it is a mission tradition. Tried my first BigMac. Also, I got separated from my companion…I didn’t get off the metro when we needed to so that was interesting. Saturday was the day we found out about the big news that we can communicate with our families every week if we want. The elders texted us the night at like 1040 but we were asleep. They had gotten a text about it from one for the american families and forwarded to us. I flipped out and didn’t think it was real for a bit. The elders are known to joke around a bit. Sunday we got to go to one of the american families for dinner for pizza. A ton of food and...suuuper good food. There was guacamole there and I about died! Avocados are expensive and it isn’t in season yet either so I haven’t bought any. Now it is today we are going shopping and we have a meeting tonight. I already talked to the fam over google hangout and it was so weird seeing their faces. I kinda forgot I had a family for a bit. I LOVE this new change let's just say. It is the last full week of the transfer so that will be interesting. I won’t be a trainee anymore so that also will be weird. That was basically the week.

So I started to read Jesus the Christ because we have an extra one in the apartment. Super interesting to read. I have always wanted to understand Christ more and since our purpose is to invite others unto Christ I felt that it was fitting. I have only gotten a few chapters in, but I have to say this book explains his role in a way that shows just how perfect the plan of salvation is. Reading this made me realize just how grateful I am that I know I have a redeemer and that I can be with my family, both earthy and heavenly, again in the next life.

Well until next week!

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Zone Conference before Donovan's left

Week 19  Farewell to The Donovan's

This week was very weird and didn't go as planned at all, but it still was pretty awesome. We had exchanges this week with the sister training leaders. I was with sister Myers. The exchange however ended early due to sister Myers getting sick. We had English group that night and we were assigned to advanced. It was on architecture/art/history, so I took control on this one and basically gave them one of my college lechers. Remembered quite a lot surprisingly, but definitely forgot a good chunk of it. I will just have to relearn some of it when I get go back to college. Thursday we saw x(investigator with a baptismal date). This was the most weirdest meeting in the world. It was the most spiritual despite her rants about how she hates this one thing and will never forgive it. At one point she starts ranting about it, her bird starts squawking, and in the background is dramatic music from the TV that her mom was watching. I felt like I was in a movie waiting for the climax to happen. It was an out of body experience let me tell you that. She is doing great though. We retaught some lessons and she is starting to get it I believe. We still have no idea when she leaves for France, but it could be soon. We pray for her a lot. She of course came to church and again she dressed up which was adorable! Friday was interesting...because it was very unexpected. We have been needing to get a new faucet since it doesn't fit our filter which we are required to have. The landlord said she would send a guy to help us. He came and after a few seconds of being there said for us to go buy one. So we left with him, got in a marshukta, and drove off to a unknown location. He took us to GIGANTIC bazaar full of literally anything related to hardware/apartment stuff. It was probably twice the size or even more than the station square bazaar. It was a maze of shops selling sinks, heaters, wires, and a bunch of other stuff.  We walked for twenty minutes passing many sink places, but he wanted to take us to his sink guy. He found it bought a new faucet and left. When we got back he started to assemble it while we did language study. When he was partway done he stopped and waited for the landlord to come to check. We had a gospel discussion with him, which he basically ranted about different religions. He talked really fast, so good language study for me. He has similar beliefs to us and we told him to read the BOM. After some more fixes he and the landlord finally left and we ended up having to leave for game night. Game night was so fun! Played spoons and it got insane. Saturday we welcomed the new senior missionaries, the Mangums. Super sweet. They were mission presidents in the Philippines. Elder Mangum severed in Montreal, Canada, so I practiced some of my french on him. Sister Mangum new me because she is related/or knows one of my companions in the MTC, Sister Burrap! So that was super cool. Sad to say goodbye to the Donovan's, but they served a great mission and it was time for them to leave. Sunday was crazy. We don't have a primary teacher/president anymore since they moved to back to America, so it's just missionaries running it. I taught primary with sister Seely since sister Van Brocklin needed to translate for relief society and sister Myers needed to help on of their members teach for the first time. We had a small split. After that we had some meetings, headed home, and caught up on 12 weeks (missionary training thing). Now we are here. We are hiking with all the missionaries today which will be fun. Fun stuff planned this week for valentines as well!

Spiritual thought (of sorts): The sister training leaders told us some stuff that they learned when they went to MLC in Armenia. They talked about how there are different types of people who are motivated by different things and actual categories for them. Blue is love, yellow is fun, white is learning, and red is accomplishment. There is a test you can take, but sadly we don't have access to that, so I have been pondering about what motivates me. I would either say I am blue or white, maybe red depending about what (such as art). The cool thing though is when you know what motivates you can adjust your goals to meet that. This goes of course with investigators and members. When we know what motivates them we can give them commitments that reflect that. I am going to keep thinking about what specific category I am, so that I can begin to make better goals that reflect that this week.

That was the week, nothing too crazy. Happy valentines day! Til next week!

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Week 18  Moving Adventures

This week was a crazy week let me tell you that. Started out with trying to clean the apartment and dealing with our not so happy landlord...she's a jerk let's just say. The struggle with cleaning and packing was that here in Georgia the landlord supplies furniture and dishes most the time. We have an inventory sheet that lists what is the churches and what is the landlords...ours was not updated...and was way off. So a lot of packing was guessing and hoping that we weren't "stealing" the landlords stuff on accident. She hasn't called us yet, so I think we are OK. The other struggle was missionaries have lived in our old apartment for over 5 years, which means we had a lot of missionary crap. We went through a lot of it and threw a good chunk of it away. Tuesday was dedicated to cleaning, which there is a story about that I will include in my spiritual thought in the end. Our landlord that day called and said we had to pay twice this month for some reason which did not make any sense, she was a complete jerk on the phone. We did not pay it because we were not going to pay twice for something we've only needed to pay for once in the past 5 years. She never brought it up again after that call, something says she was just trying to get the most money out of us before we left. Didn't work. Your welcome future missionaries that come after us because you have a new wonderful landlord at the new Saburtalo apartment. Wednesday was more cleaning at the old apartment. There has only been 3 sister companionship in the old apartment, so the rest of the 5 years it was occupied by elders...which means we had A LOT to clean. Lets just say a lot of stains and a lot of grease. We tried our best and it didn't look to bad in the end. Thursday was moving day! The elders from our district came to help take down the bed and help us move. Fun stuff happened that day. The power went out in the middle of the day so not only did we have to haul down a bunch a stuff 12 flights of stairs because the elevator didnt work, but also up 12 flights of stairs to our new apartment because there is no elevator in the building. Even though there is no elevator and we will have to climb 12 flights of stairs every day, the new apartment is still 10x better.  We also were struggling to flag down taxis to carry big stuff, since for some reason there are no moving trucks in Georgia. We found a car that was long enough and could fit the broken down twin bed and mattress. Sister Van Brocklin and I went in that car. She sat in the front while I sat in the back. I was in-between the car floor and the top of the bed, since the bed went all the way to the drivers seat and none of the back seat could be up. Probably so unsafe, but super fun. I was just curled up in a ball while we drove praying didn't get in a wreck. That night we were supposed to see our old landlord to give the keys, but she ended up just calling and saying to leave the keys under the map. She didn't want to see us and to be honest, we didn't really want to see her either. Friday we basically unpacking. We met our investigator with the baptismal date (I am just going to call her x from now on) that day because on the phone she said she would probably not go to church this Sunday and she would explain when we met. We rushed over there. Turns out she just didn't want to impose on anyone's kindness since she isn't a member. Long story short she came to church that Sunday. Super cool thing though is that her bird is how we can tell when the spirit is there or not. When lady x starts to rant about how much she hates this one thing and how she can never forgive it, the bird starts to squawk. When we have a solid spiritual meeting the bird is completely quiet. We always know how the meeting will go based on the bird. Koki, the bird, is literally the best! Our little spirit detector! Saturday we unpacked even more and cleaned. We had scripture study group that night at the church and we taught it. I was able to wing some sentences up so yeah! It wasn't perfect, but I was able to speak, so I will take it. Sunday was normal and now we are here. We are seeing the other sister missionaries today and showing them our apartment. Which by the way has a "balcony"! Not really it's a whole in the wall next to our apartment that goes onto the roof. Not kidding about the whole in the wall, I am attaching a picture in the email. I freakin' love this thing! I love the new apartment. Super crazy week, but super fun non the less.

OK, the spiritual thought: So going home from district meeting on Tuesday we had a lot of boxes. We took a marshukta which is basically a long van (bus) with a hallway of sorts. We got on and there was only one seat left and we had like four boxes. I remembered that sister Van Broklin said she wasn't feeling well, so I told her to sit and that I would stand and hold on to the boxes. The ride was not the most comfortable thing since I had to stand for about 35 minutes and old on for dear life since the driver was...a Georgian driver. We were nearing our stop and I thought "you know what Rachel, I can stop the marshukta since I know where we are" (you have to say stop for the driver or he will keep going). I said stop and we got off. Sister Van Broklin unknown to me was in a lot of pain from that drive and when she got off almost threw up. She had no idea where we were and just needed to get home. We got home and she of course laid down for a bit while I cleaned. I thought about this experience and little bit and it reminded me of a talk I watched in the MTC, by Elder Bednar. He talked about how we should stop worrying about whether or not its the spirit, and just be a good boy and a good girl and when you think of something, act, and you will be fine. I felt that this experience matched his message. It was definitely the spirit guiding me in those small moments. It just came in thinking of the information I had of Sister Van Brocklin and speaking up and acting on the spirit. 

That is the week! This week will go back to normal a little bit. We get new senior missionaries this Saturday so that will be fun. Til next week!

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